BY the start of the fourth quarter Thursday night, you’d have expected Don Chaney’s Knick players to be thinking about sipping pina coladas on a Caribbean beach, playing video games with their kids, getting out of the Garden as fast they could.

That’s what last season’s Knicks would’ve been thinking with the All-Star break on the horizon and the Lakers prancing about with a 30-point lead.

Last season’s club would’ve worn those hangdog looks, shoulders slumped.

But these Knicks showed something Thursday night that was just as impressive as Shaquille O’Neal’s rim-bending dunks and the off-balance, falling-to-the-floor jumpers by Kobe Bryant.

They showed Knick pride. Heart. Guts. Resiliency. The Knicks took the Lakers’ best punches, got knocked down to the floor countless times and still got up to fight again.

The Lakers’ talent level is in a different stratosphere than the Knicks’ – but it was Bryant who desperately wanted the clock to run out at the end of the Knicks’ 41-17 blitz, which let the Lakers escape with a 114-109 win.

“We just ran out of time,” the Knicks’ Kurt Thomas said.

The Knicks didn’t pull off a miraculous comeback. Despite being 2½ games out of a playoff spot, they won’t make the playoffs because 21 of their final 34 games on the road.

But Thursday confirmed again Chaney is no longer the substitute teacher he was last year.

This year, Chaney has pressed the right motivational buttons, has steered the Knick ship through turbulent preseason waters, has done as good a coaching job as anyone in the East.

“I don’t think it’s fair to compare last year and this year because he came in under such extreme negative circumstances,” Allan Houston said, referring to Chaney’s ascension after Jeff Van Gundy’s stunning resignation.

“It was a no-win situation last year. It’s comparing apples and oranges. Even this year people really didn’t want to give him a chance. But he’s done a tremendous job of preparing us.”

He has injected confidence in Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley, once lost souls. He has Latrell Sprewell playing as unselfishly as he has in his entire career. He even has Sprewell showing up on time.

When Sprewell returned from the injured list, most coaches would’ve promptly pulled Anderson from the starting lineup. Chaney made Sprewell wait a game.

Anderson, whom Chaney knows to be sensitive, appreciated the gesture. When Charlie Ward returned from an injury, Chaney moved unconventionally again, keeping Eisley in the starting lineup, not wanting to disrupt his rhythm.

Eisley and Anderson are the Knicks’ two most improved players.

“He still doesn’t yell but he’s more direct,” Thomas said of Chaney. “It’s been all positives.”

With a training camp, Chaney knew he could be a much better leader than last season, during the 30-52 debacle. The Knicks achieved their 21st victory Tuesday. Last season they didn’t win No. 21 until March 1.

“I wasn’t mentally prepared to take the head-coaching job last season,” Chaney admitted candidly. “It was a difficult adjustment going from assistant to head coach after [six years]. You need a gameplan, and now I know what buttons to push on certain players.”

Laker coach Phil Jackson can diminish the Knicks’ fourth quarter all he wants. But the Knicks wiped off Jackson’s smirk in the final 12 minutes, turned it into a worried frown. And Chaney has wiped off his laid-back label.

The Knicks may not win more than once on their six-game Western trip that begins Friday. But they’re not quitting on Chaney this season.